Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Tallahassee, Sarasota: salon, movie theater)

[wondermint2]

A Detailed Map of Who Is Wearing Masks in the U.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-mask-map.html

In some American neighborhoods, it’s hard to spot even one person outside without a face covering. In others, your odds of seeing many maskless people are quite high.

Public health officials believe that face coverings can substantially slow transmission of the coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly in many states. But face coverings work best if they are adopted widely, and that is not the case everywhere. The accompanying map shows the odds of whether, if you encountered five people in a given area, all of them would be wearing masks.

Our data comes from a large number of interviews conducted by the global data and survey firm Dynata at the request of The New York Times. The firm asked a question about mask use to obtain 250,000 survey responses between July 2 and July 14, enough data to provide estimates more detailed than the state level. (Several states have imposed new mask requirements since the completion of these interviews.)

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I looked at their map and for our area here in SW Florida and it says:

How often do you wear a mask in public when you expect to be within six feet of another person?

Always = 72%

Frequently = 17%

Sometimes = 5%

Rarely = 3%

Never = 3%

This translates to a 56% chance that everyone is masked in five random encounters.

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* This survey was taken before Walmart and Publix made masks mandatory. Thus IMO going forward the percentage of people wearing masks are likely to be a bit higher.

[wondermint2]

White House blocks CDC from testifying on reopening schools next week
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/17/p...ols/index.html

The White House is blocking US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield and other officials from the agency from testifying before a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on reopening schools next week, just as the debate over sending children back to classrooms has flared up across the US.

White House officials informed the committee of its decision in an email, a staff member on the House panel told CNN.

[wondermint2]

Florida residents organizing 'COVID-19 parties,' some led by gang members: sheriff
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-r...19-parties.amp

Florida gang members have supposedly been hosting massive parties at vacation rental homes with the hopes of spreading the coronavirus, according to officials.

Osceola County Sherriff Russ Gibson reported that the sheriff’s office has received more than 600 noise complaints, many related to what Gibson referred to as “COVID-19 parties.” Gibson advised that over the coming weekend, his deputies plan to step up patrols in areas where the parties have been known to happen.

“They’re being referred to, from what I’m being told, as COVID-19 parties where they’re actually getting together and they’re trying to mingle to potentially spread the virus amongst each other if they’re asymptomatic or whatever the case might be,” Gibson said.

Gibson claimed that such parties range in size from 50 to 400 people, some coming from other parts of Central Florida, Click Orlando reported. The parties largely appear to occur at vacation rental properties, specifically in three gated housing developments.

Gibson plans to work with county commissioners and politicians to develop some type of law or ordinance that would prevent these types of parties from happening. Until then, he only asks that residents call the sheriffs or report any such parties they see advertised on social media.

[wondermint2]

Florida’s DeSantis Says Virus Antibody Tests Show 16% Positive
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fl...ve/ar-BB16Uw3C

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said tests administered in his state Friday that aim to detect Covid-19 antibodies -- indicating whether a person had at some point been exposed to the virus -- showed a 16.1% positive rate.

“That is a significant jump from where we were a month and a half ago,” DeSantis said Saturday during a press conference in St. Augustine. “So there’s a bigger pool of people who have the antibody.”

[wondermint2]

I posted a link to this interactive map before (see below) - but it's changed since the last time I posted it. Risk levels are calculated (for every county in the USA) based on daily cases per 100,000 population (7 day rolling average).

The framework also allows for a breadth of options for what to do beyond TTSI (testing, tracing and supported isolation) when jurisdictions are at yellow and orange levels. Public officials need to make strategic decisions suitable to their context. Once a community reaches the red risk level, stay-at-home orders become necessary again. The framework also draws attention to the need to focus on suppression at every risk level.

How severe is the pandemic where you live?
https://globalepidemics.org/key-metr...d-suppression/

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The recent update to the map was on 07/16/20. It shows that 60 Florida counties are in the Red zone, and 7 Florida Counties are in the Orange zone. No Florida counties are in the Yellow and Green zones. Red is the worst zone and it means there are 25+ cases per 100,000 people. They recommend stay at home orders for counties in the red zone.

Looking at the map Sarasota County is in the Red zone showing 42.6 cases per 100,000 people (7 day moving average). Manatee County is in the Red zone showing 58.4 cases per 100,000 people (7 day moving average). It looks like the worst county in Florida is Miami-Dade with 102.3 cases per 100,000 people (7 day moving average), followed by Broward County with 76.6 cases per 100,000 people (7 day moving average).

[wondermint2]

With Children in School, Study Suggests, Expect Transmission
https://www.newser.com/story/293780/...nsmission.html

We may have been kidding ourselves about the likelihood of children spreading the coronavirus. A major study conducted in South Korea shows that children under 10 do give the virus to each other and to adults less often than other age groups do, the New York Times reports. But it does happen. And particularly worrisome as schools prepare to reopen is the finding that those ages 10 to 19 spread the coronavirus even more often than adults do. This study contradicts some research, but a Harvard expert called the earlier work flawed. The South Korean study, which included contact tracing, "is very carefully done, it’s systematic and looks at a very large population," he said. "It's one of the best studies we’ve had to date on this issue."


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Covid-19 Spread Fastest by Teens and Tweens, Korea Study Finds
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...ds/ar-BB16V7xm

Older children are more likely to spread Covid-19 within a household than younger children and adults, according to a new study of 5,706 coronavirus patients in South Korea.

The researchers traced and tested nearly 60,000 people who had contact with the infected people and found that, on average, 11.8% of household contacts tested positive for Covid-19, according to the early release of a study published on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

For people who lived with patients between the ages of 10 and 19, 18.6% tested positive for the virus within about 10 days after the initial case was detected -- the highest rate of transmission among the groups studied. Children younger than 10 spread the virus at the lowest rate, though researchers warned that could change when schools reopen.

[wondermint2]

White House seeks to block funds for coronavirus testing and tracing in relief bill, report says
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ys/ar-BB16UAU7

The White House is trying to block billions of dollars for coronavirus testing and contact tracing in the upcoming stimulus relief bill, according to a new report in The Washington Post, even as infections surge across the country and Americans face long wait times to receive test results amid high demand.

The Trump administration also wants to block billions of dollars that would go toward bolstering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon and the State Department to combat the pandemic, the Post reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the deliberations.

The White House declined CNBC's request for comment.

[wondermint2]

Palm Beach County’s health director urged online schooling only. But she wouldn’t put it in writing.
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/2...-it-in-writing

The worsening spike of new COVID-19 cases made it too dangerous for public schools to reopen, Dr. Alina Alonso insisted July 6 during a meeting of the school district’s health advisory committee.

Guided by her advice, committee members concluded that campuses should stay closed, attendees say. Two days later, the school board agreed.

But when school district officials asked Alonso last week for a letter reiterating her concerns, the veteran health director declined, three public officials familiar with the matter told The Palm Beach Post.

Alonso’s decision not to put her recommendation in writing came the same week that State Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran released an emergency order calling for all Florida public schools to provide in-person classes five days a week.

It raised concerns among school leaders that increased politicization of the school-reopening debate might be affecting state health experts’ ability to give unfettered advice.

After a version of this story was published online, School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri criticized state Health Department leaders during a school board meeting Wednesday afternoon, saying he believed that Alonso had been “politically silenced by Tallahassee.”

“She got a call from the surgeon general of the state of Florida that told her to keep her mouth shut and not speak about it,” he said. “And I know that’s a fact because it’s been confirmed by several people.”

[wondermint2]

Florida teachers union files lawsuit to stop DeSantis from reopening schools as coronavirus cases surge
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fl...ge/ar-BB16YrLg

One of Florida’s largest teachers unions filed a lawsuit Monday to stop Gov. Ron DeSantis and state education officials from the “reckless and unsafe” reopening of schools for in-person classes amid surging coronavirus cases.

The Florida Education Associated (FEA) filed the lawsuit in state circuit court in Miami against DeSantis, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the Florida Department of Education, the Florida State Board of Education and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

The suit alleges that the July 6 emergency order requiring all public K-12 schools in the state to allow on-site classes is a violation of the Florida Constitution as COVID-19 infections continue to surge statewide.

The FEA called the current conditions regarding coronavirus in the state “unsafe” for in-person learning and contended the move is “to protect health and well-being of students, educators and communities.”

[wondermint2]

New Treatment for Covid-19 Shows Promise, but Scientists Urge Caution
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/w...eron-beta.html

LONDON — A small study of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in Britain has identified a promising new treatment for the illness, a British biotechnology company said on Monday, with initial results showing that an inhaled form of a commonly available drug can reduce the odds of patients requiring intensive care.

But the trial, which sent shares of the company, Synairgen, soaring, caused some consternation among scientists, who demanded to see more detailed data and faulted the company for failing to make clear exactly how helpful the drug was or how long its benefits lasted.

The inhaled form of interferon beta tested by Synairgen was shown in the study to reduce the odds of patients becoming severely ill — needing ventilation, for example, or dying — by 79 percent compared to patients who received a placebo.

“It looks promising,” said Simon Maxwell, a professor of clinical pharmacology and prescribing at the University of Edinburgh. “But the report is of an outcome in a relatively small number of patients, and so it is too early to draw reliable conclusions.”

Scientists said that interferon was likely to be most helpful to patients early in their illness.